Opening means for button-holding accessory to sewing machine

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a non-manual control means for a button-holding accessory for a sewing machine. Such an accessory is of a type which includes two inwardly biased jaws whose purpose is to hold buttons in a particular position so as to enable the needle of a sewing machine to affix such a button to a particular garment. The button-holding accessory includes a longitudinal base with which said two jaws are pivotally associated. The control means which comprises the subject of the present invention may be viewed as a means for opposing said inward bias. Said means includes two ends, one end being transversely secured to said jaws, the other end being secured to said base.

United States Patent [1 91 Chierico 1 Dec. 17, 1974 OPENING MEANS FOR BUTTON-HOLDING ACCESSORY TO SEWING MACHINE Massimo A. Chierico, Lyndhurst, NJ.

[75] Inventor:

[52] US. Cl. 112/114 [51] Int. Cl D051) 3/00 [58] Field of Search 112/76, 105-114 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 690,305 12/1901 Leilich 112/114 3,425,372 2/1969 Gobhai et al. 112/114 3,440,984 4/1969 Hofe 112/110 3,680,506 8/1972 Hayr et al. ll2/1 12 3,716,006 2/1973 Snyder 112/1 14 Primary ExaminerGe0rge V. Larkin Attorney, Agent, or FirmMel K. Silverman, Esq.

[57] ABSTRACT The present invention relates to a non-manual control means for a button-holding accessory for a sewing machine. Such an accessory is of a type which includes two inwardly biased jaws whose purpose is to hold buttons in a particular position so as to enable the needle of a sewing machine to affix such a button to a particular garment. The button-holding accessory includes a longitudinal base with which said two jaws are pivotally associated. The control means which comprises the subject of the present invention may be viewed as a means for opposing said inward bias. Said means includes two ends, one end being transversely secured to said jaws, the other end being secured to said base.

1 Claim, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTED DEC 1 7 I974 sum NF OPENING MEANS FOR BUTTON-HOLDING ACCESSORY TO SEWING MACHINE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Almost all textile work involves the attachment of buttons of various types, sizes and shapes to various garments of clothing. Many mechanisms have, over the years, been utilized in the affixing of buttons to clothing. Such mechanisms have included button-holding clamps that are utilized in association with various sewing machines. Two such button-holding clamps are represented in the U.S. Pats. to Leilich, No. 690,305 (1901) and Snyder, No. 3,716,006 (1973).

Following the development of the button-holding clamp, various efforts were made to incorporate such a clamp into the operation of an otherwise conventional sewing machine. Such an incorporation has, for various reasons, proved to be somewhat difficult. A part of the problem lies in the number of criteria which a designer of an integrated control means for a buttonholding accessory must consider. For example, one must consider the ease with which the jaws of a buttonholding clamp can be made to open or close; furthermore, workers safety is a consideration. In this regard, many prior art button-holding devices, while otherwise satisfactory, suffered from the problem that the opening and closing of the jaws of the clamp would on occassion work into a dis-synchronization with the movement of the sewing needle, thereby resulting in the breaking of the needle. Upon such an occurrence, a distinct and definite hazard to a workers safety exists.

A further design criterion revolves about the consideration of worker morale: more particularly, most existent designs require the machine operator to manually insert the button into the jaws of the button-holding accessory. The repeated motion which this procedure requires has proved unsatisfactory. This is because of the worker fatigue which such a procedure inevitably causes.

Most automatic jaw control devices that have existed in the art are directed to uses wherein every button to be affixed is of the same size. Such devices appear in large mass production textile operations. As regards a control means suitable for use with a button-holding accessory intended for use with buttons having a variety of different sizes, nothing in the prior art has adequately dealt with this problem; The one effort, which appears in U.S. Pat. No. 2,963,999 (I960) to Braun, which might possibly serve as a solution to the above outlined deficiencies in the prior art, suffers from several practical engineering shortcomings that render its use difficult if not impossible in most standard industrial sewing machines, e.g., those of the 175 Class Singer and the 200 Class Lewis. The Braun invention calls for a solenoid disposed within the body of the sewing machine. The solenoid is utilized, through a complex series of linkages, as a reciprocating means for the jaws of the button-holding accessory. In addition to the complexity of said linkage, the button-holding accessory, a utilized in Braun. does not constitute a single self-contained unit. This is because the button clamp can be detached from the machine only with considerable difficulty and, upon detachment, is disassociated from the solenoid upon which it relies for its reciproeating function. Consequently, the buttonholding clamp as illustrated in Braun can only be utilized with.

a sewing machine of the type shown in said patent, namely, one that is provided with an internally disposed solenoid. The use of such a button-holding clamp with any other sewing machine would be impossible.

Another important practical consideration which severely limits the concept of Braun is the fact that exceedingly few industrial sewing machines possess suffrcient room within the machine proper to accomodate a solenoid and linkage arrangement. An example of this situation is illustrated in FIG. 6 which shows the arrangement of the interior mechanisms of a typical industrial machine, i.e., a Singer Class 175. It'can be readily seen that virtually all available space within the machine body is occupied. Thus, the integration of a solenoid and linkage subsystem into such a machine would involve great engineering difficulty and, of course, would be economically prohibitive.

Other related prior art attempts, such as that of Avis in U.S. Pat. No. 2,352,68l, are, as in the case of Braun, applicable only to the particular type of machine with which they were developed. In the case of Avis, the type of machine is known as a Reece sewing machine. The concept of Avis could not, without considerable technical difficulty, be adapted to any other type of sewing machine.

In light of the above, the present invention can be viewed as an attempt to provide a self-contained universal control means for a button-holding accessory to a sewing machine wherein said control means is readily detachable from any given sewing machine and utilizable in a similar fashion with, any other machine.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Anobject of the present invention isto provide a selfcontained control means for a button-holding accessory to a sewing machine.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a button-holding accessory and a control means therefore wherein said button-holding accessory is suitable for use with a variety of different-sized buttons.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a compact, versatile, self-contained, detachable combination control means and button-holding accessory that is usable with a wide variety of different sewing machines.

A yet further object of the present invention is to provide an automatic control means that will enable an otherwise conventional button-holding accessory to be utilized with greater speed and safety than has been heretofore possible.

The present invention relates to a control means of the above-stated type for a standard button-holding accessory having two angularly biased jaws, wherein each of said jaws pivotally depends from a base portion of the accessory. Interposed between said base portion and said jaws is a means for opposing the angular bias of the jaws. Said opposing means includes two ends, one of said ends being fixedly secured to said jaws, and the other of said ends being secured to an aft area of said base.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a standard sewing machine with a'button-holding accessory.

FIG. 2 is a top .plan view of a button-holding accessory equipped with the present novel control means.

FIG. 3 is a bottom plan view of a button-holding accessory equipped with the present control means. The opposing means is shown in movement from a closed to an open jaw position.

FIG. 4 is a bottom plan view, similar to FIG. 3, however showing the jaws of the button-holding accessory in a fully-opened position.

FIG. 5 is a front elevational view of a button-holding accessory equipped with the present novel control means.

FIG. 6 is a breakaway perspective view of the machine illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of spring 28.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Illustrated in FIG. 1 is a sewing machine 10 of the Singer 175/700 Class. Said sewing machine is representative of a broad class of machines to which the present invention is applicable.

Shown in association with the machine 10 is a buttonholding accessory l2. Said accessory is attachable and detachable from the machine 10 at area 14. The accessory 12 can be viewed as a generalized multi-purpos e button-holding accessory. Its purpose is to hold a button 16 in a position immediately underneath a needle 18 of the machine 10 in order to facilitate the sewing of said button 16 to a garment (not shown) which is normally slid beneath the button at an area 20 of the machine 10. v

The salient features of the accessory 12 are, for purposes of the present description, an elongated base portion 22 and a pair of angularly biased jaws 24 and 24. In most embodiments, said jaws will possess an inward bias. It is however, to be noted that the principles of the present invention may, with minor adaptations, be readily applied to a button-holding accessory wherein the jaws possess an outward bias.

The jaws 24 and 24 are pivotally connected to said base 22 at screws 26 and 26 (see FIG. 3). One may see that the angular relationship between the points 26 and 26' and the jaws 24 and 24' is influenced by a biasing spring 28 and an associated sliding element 30. A screw 32 is attached to a chain 33 which lifts the clamp assembly up. See FIG. 6.

The normal operation of the button-holding accessory consists of the manual insertion of the button 16 into the jaws 24-24; that is, the jaws 2424 must be physically separated by a user of the button-holding accessory. Hence, in order to properly position a button 16 within jaws 24, it is necessary for an operator to physically push the button into grooves 34 and 34' (see FIG. 5) of the jaws 24-24, thus manually forcing the jaws apart. This procedure, while simple enough when performed only a few times, will become exceedingly tiresome and fatiguing when repeated hundreds and perhaps thousands of times during the course of a normal work day. In order to alleviate this burdensome aspect of industrial and commercial sewing, it has become necessary to explore avenues by which the above manual procedure might be eliminated.

The present invention dispenses with the complexities and technical limitations that have characterized prior art solutions to the above-described problem. More particularly, the approach of the present invention is that of integrating a control means for a buttonholding accessory into the accessory itself, thereby producing a totally self-contained unit that may be readily detached for use with any of a broad class of industrial and commercial machines.

Turning to FIG. 2, one may observe a reciprocating means, such as a solenoid 36. The solenoid is secured by screws 38 to a base 40 which is itself secured to the accessory base 22 by screws 421A solenoid is generally defined as a coil of wire, commonly in the form of a toroid, that, when induced with a current, exhibits physical properties resembling those of a bar magnet. A movable core will be drawn into said coil when a current is passed through the coil of wire.

In FIG. 2, a coil 44 is shown surrounding a bar 46. In the present embodiment the normal position of said bar 46 is an extended one with relationship to the core 44. Upon excitation as by actuating a micro-switch, the bar 46 will be drawn inward, as indicated by the arrow in FIG. 3, thereby causing a coupling means 48, and an associated cross-bar 50, to be linearly displaced in the direction of the solenoid. Coupling means 48 is joined to the bar 46 by virtue of a screw 49. Said cross bar 50 is disposed in an abutting transverse relationship with respect to the jaws 24 and 24. Accordingly, the displacement of the cross bar 50 will result in the forced opening of jaws 24 24.

It is to be noted that, when called for in any given application, the extent of th opening of said jaws 24-24 may be precisely regulated through the use of a rheostat in association with said solenoid. Through the use of a rheostat, the current flow within the coil 44 can be regulated, thereby obtaining a careful control of the opening of the jaws 24-24'. It is to be further noted that the lack of such precision in button-holding accessories has constituted one of the major shortcomings of the prior art and, as such, has often given rise to the requirement of using different sized button-holding accessories to accommodate buttons of different sizes. In the alternative, said problem has resulted in the need for frequent adjustments in the bias of spring 28. accomodate As may be seen, the present control means serves to oppose the angular bias of the jaws 24-24' and their associated elements which are screws 26, spring 28, and sliding element 30. Said opposing means includes two ends. The first of said ends is affixed to cross-bar 50 in such a manner so as to transmit the linear reciprocating motion of said reciprocating means to the spring 28 of the jaws 24-24'. The coupling means 48 may assume any of a number of forms. For example, element 48 may constitute a slotted bar, a chain, or any other semirigid linkage.

It is to be noted that a slotted bar, utilized as the coupling means 48, may be used to perform the same function as would the above-described rheostat. Where the bar length is increased, the maximum opening of the jaws 24-24' is increased. Conversely, by decreasing the bar length, the jaw opening can be decreased. Hence, the ready adjustability of the present control means in order to accomodate buttons of differing sizes can be appreciated.

An actuation means for the solenoid may assume any of a variety of embodiments. For example, it may constitute a button, a dial, or a switch at one side of the machine in the area indicated by reference numeral 54 in FIG. 1. Also, the actuation means may assume the form of a foot switch or pedal. The latter approach will probably prove most practical inasmuch as it would enable an operators hands to remain free for other simultaneous operations.

The afore-mentioned rheostat control may be readily incorporated into any of the above mentioned actuation means. For example, a foot control enabling the operator to precisely control the degree of opening and closing of the jaws 24-24 may easily designed.

While there is hereby shown and described the preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be understood that the invention may be embodied otherwise than is herein specifically illustrated or described, and that in the illustrated embodiments certain changes in the details and construction and in the form and arrangements of the parts may be made without departing from the underlying idea or principle of this invention within the scope of the appended claim.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, useful and nonobvious, and accordingly secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A button-holding accessory for a sewing machine including an opening device, said accessory having two inwardly, angularly, spring-biased button-holding jaws, wherein said accessory comprises:

a. a base upon which said jaws are pivotally mounted;

and b. means for opposing the spring-bias of said jaws,

said opposing means comprising: i. a solenoid mounted upon said base, ii. a cross-bar disposed in abutting relationship to said button-holding jaws, and iii. a connecting link comprised of two longitudinally adjustable bars, one of said bars being mounted to said solenoid, and the other of said bars being mounted upon said cross-bar which urges said two button-holding jaws apart against the spring-bias of said jaws to effect a required opening in order to seat and hold a button therein in abuttingly opposed relationship to said spring-biased jaws, thereby assisting the operator of a sewing machine in the opening of said jaws. 

1. A button-holding accessory for a sewing maChine including an opening device, said accessory having two inwardly, angularly, spring-biased button-holding jaws, wherein said accessory comprises: a. a base upon which said jaws are pivotally mounted; and b. means for opposing the spring-bias of said jaws, said opposing means comprising: i. a solenoid mounted upon said base, ii. a cross-bar disposed in abutting relationship to said button-holding jaws, and iii. a connecting link comprised of two longitudinally adjustable bars, one of said bars being mounted to said solenoid, and the other of said bars being mounted upon said cross-bar which urges said two button-holding jaws apart against the spring-bias of said jaws to effect a required opening in order to seat and hold a button therein in abuttingly opposed relationship to said spring-biased jaws, thereby assisting the operator of a sewing machine in the opening of said jaws. 